@PassionfruitOrangeGuava
No, it’s not possible to guarantee you can prevent it 100% of the time. But if you see someone taking photos of your child you’re well within your rights to ask for them to delete it, even if they don’t have to comply. I think we’re both aware the situation isn’t as black and white as you’re making out, and there’s space here for empathy and understanding.
I don’t really understand the mindset of ‘don’t have to delete so shan’t’ that some posters are espousing. Seems a little obstinate when the alternative (deleting them and taking more without the child in the frame) is straightforward enough.
Maybe it's because most of us have actually read the OPs post and understood she
didn't take pictures of their child!
She took pictures of her grandchild, on a slide.
While another child was near the slide.
And in fact was only partly visible in one picture.
Why should she delete pictures solely of her grandchild? Or even one picture, again of her grandchild, where another kids arm or leg or the back of their head etc might just be visible if you look hard enough but is not the subject of the picture?
She didn't go around taking random pictures of other people's children. Or of her grandchild playing with another child. Or on a swing next to another child (as someone suggested).
It's not realistic or reasonable to expect that no pictures of people's own family can ever be taken in the same public space (park, theme park, holiday destination) as other people's children on the vague chance a part of the strangers anatomy or a blurry out of focus image might appear in the background. None of us would have holiday or theme park images if that was the case.
A clearly identifiable and purposely taken image of someone elses child - fine to ask to delete. A concern that a LAC/adopted/vulnerable child might have inadvertantly ended up in the background of someone else photo and could be identifiable? Perfectly reasonable to politely ask if the child is in shot and if so could they be cropped or blurred out for their protection. No one would dispute that in these circumstances it's fine to ask and most reasonable people would crop out, blur etc.
But a scenario like the OP described, with aggressive parents who threatened violence because she took pictures of her own grandchild and they thought their kid could have ended up visible and actually wasn't at all - is ridiculous and I wouldn't be pandering to aggressive, violent and paranoid people who cannot bear other people taking pictures of their family members even near their kid. Let's face it, the camera had a focus lens, the grandchild was most likely at the bottom of the slide or the top of the slide. The other kid would either be totally out of shot (OP zoomed in on her grandchild at the bottom of the slide, other kid at the top of the slide not in shot) or partly visible ( queuing at the bottom of the slide, a hand or a top of head if stood behind Ops grandchild at the top of the slide). The parents, instead of watching the whole thing unfold and then challenging OP at the end, could have, at the time said "Please can you hold on one second, it's important our child doesn't end up in the background of your photos" and made sure she wasn't visible. But they didn't. Nor did they take the steps to ascertain that their kid was even IN or indentifiable in these pictures before demanding deletion and behaving aggressively towards the OP and falsely accusing her of breaking the law. Again...they demanded she delete pictures that their child wasn't even in.
Yes, I have a very hard time empathising with that. I think they should have been reported to the police.